Why Chew When You Don't Have To?

In early 2013, a then-24-year-old software engineer Rob Rhinehart got sufficiently fed up with the fuss of daily eating to put his heart and soul into devising an alternative. Using the U.S. Institute of Medicine's recommendations, Rhinehart mixed up appropriate ratios of carbohydrates, fats, proteins and micronutrients into a sludgy drink, and published his month-long experiment on a blog. Through the lively discussions the posts generated, Rhinehart continued tinkering with the formula, set up Rosa Labs with US$4.5 million raised through crowdfunding and venture capital, and began shipping the product. His initial success brought another US$20 million in funding, and the regularly upgraded powdered formulations just culminated in the 2.0 liquid version.

Rhinehart's creation is named Soylent. It's a cheeky nod to the sci-fi food-like product of the same name, considering most people recall that, in the 1973 movie Soylent Green, the foodstuff was made from people. Since version 1.2, Rhinehart's Soylent has been vegan, while claiming to provide all the nutrition a human body needs. Rosa Labs deems that, at roughly US$3 per meal, Soylent is a part of the solution to world hunger that could also ''drastically reduce the ecological impact of food production.''

Current customers are, by and large, business travelers, truck drivers and single moms, who all likely echo Rhinehart's own desire for quick yet nutritionally balanced nourishment. Soylent's founder pictures a future where sustenance is a no-brainer and cooking can become a purely optional, leisurely art form.

徹底顛覆你的飲食概念──液體代餐

2013 年初，當時 24 歲的軟體工程師羅勃．萊恩哈特完全受夠了準備日常飲食的麻煩，於是投注全部心力設計替代方案。他採用美國國家醫學院的建議，把適當比例的碳水化合物、脂肪、蛋白質與微量營養素混合成一種泥狀飲料，並將他費時一個月的實驗過程登在部落格上。透過這些刊登內容所產生的熱烈討論，萊恩哈特持續改進配方，並以群眾募資與創投基金募到的 450 萬美元設立名叫 Rosa Labs 的公司，且開始出貨。他最初的成功帶來了另一筆兩千萬美元的資金，且持續更新粉末配方，集大成的是 2.0 版的液體餐。
萊恩哈特的創作產物名為 Soylent，這是調皮地向一款同名的科幻似食物產品致敬，因為大部分的人都會想起在 1973 年的電影《超世紀諜殺案》中，這種食物是由人類所製造的。自 1.2 版本之後，萊恩哈特的 Soylent 一直都是全素的，且主張可提供人體所需的所有營養。Rosa Labs 將每餐價格約三美元的 Soylent 視作全球飢餓問題的解決方案之一，因為它可「大幅減少生產食物對生態的衝擊」。
目前 Soylent 大多數的顧客是商務旅遊人士、卡車司機與單親媽媽，他們似乎都能呼應萊恩哈特快速但又營養均衡的飲食訴求。Soylent 創辦人預想的未來是：食物是不須費腦筋的，而料理食物則變成一種單純選擇性且充滿休閒感的藝術形態。